Ladybugs eat aphids and are especially of interest to gardeners who plant milkweed. The bad news is that they don't do a fantastic job of ridding a garden of aphids. Butterfly gardeners are expecially intersted in lady bugs to rid their gardens of yellow milkweed aphids. Lady bugs are fantastic little creatures and fun to find in a garden while they quietly earn their keep by eating aphids, one by one.

Ladybug witha dropletof rain

Ladybug eggs

A ladybug nymphis small

An adult ladybug lays her eggs near a food source; aphids. The nymphs hatch, resembling small alligators. Ladybug nymphs are black and orange. Eating aphids, nymphs are friends of gardeners. As nymphs grow, they must molt, the same as caterpillars.

A ladybug nymph starts to molt

The nymphcontinues to climbout of its old skin

A nympheats amilkweed aphid

Lady bug pupa

The nymph changes into a pupa. From the pupa, the adult lady bug emerges. Adult ladybugs eat aphids of all kinds. Yellow milkweed aphids are the same as yellow oleander aphids. These ladybugs are eating milkweed/oleander aphids on milkweed.